Silence the Nightmares
by OuttaGalaxy
Summary: Melany is a young woman working in London as a secretary in the Princess Grace's Hospital where a strange medical case is going on. The Malwares, a commune enemy of the Doctor as well as Torchwood's, are closing in on their objectives and must be stopped. This story is divided in small chapters of about 1,000 words and one of them is to be posted every week. Enjoy your reading!
1. Silence the Nightmares: Chapter 1

Nine pm and she had only woke up. A short nap cut short by the loudest alarm clock she was ever given to hear was the only sleep she had in 2 days. At ten, she left the apartment, took the bus, went to the top floor, as usual, and got to the hospital after a short ride. She enjoyed feeling the breeze in her hair as it lasted.

She is no nurse, nor doctor, not even a patient. She simply sits at the front desk and serves people. Just before she took her shift that night, she poured two coffees and brought one to her friend, who was also on nightshift that day.

"As pale as ever." her friend said.

"And you are as fresh as a daisy! I don't ever get to see the bloody sunlight with this job, no wonder I don't get a tan."

"I was not talking about that kind of paleness, but I'll do as you were not hiding something from me. And don't use "bloody": you're not allowed, French girl. "

Dear Emma: always wondering what's in the head of everyone. Must be the reason why she took this job; everyone is here to tell her whatever is wrong with them.

A client arrived, suffering from an intense rash all over his face. Emma took him to the zone where the hospital was actually regrouping this kind of patient, since there were a lot these times, then came back. Her dark hair roaming free on her shoulders, her milk chocolate skin opposed dramatically the blond, pale young woman who was waiting for her at the front desk.

"Aren't you cold dear? You look like an ice cube."

"If I answer that you look hot in comparison, would you take it as a compliment?" answered the blond with a smile.

After mumbling something that sounded like «changing subject as ever», but still smiling at the praise, she sat back at her place and took a sip of her coffee. After a while and two other clients (which went to the exact same place as the preceding one), she asked:

"How long has it been Mel? About a year? That we work together I mean."

They opened a small lunchbox containing donuts, choosing carefully between honey wheels and honey bites, their favorites.

"Only three months. Four since we've met."

Emma nodded in approval.

"Three months of good cooperation. We've just earned the « hard workers » achievement and the title of best friends."

"Gamer. You should leave those games for the teenagers and get a life." Melany joked.

"But I'm the great wizard of the land of doom, member of the order of the black knights, actual chief of the guild of the stars, Wenda Osgoroth the Great! I've just achieved level 60 yesterday."

She was interupted in her review of her last 20 titles she earned in the game by a man who needed to see a certain doctor. He introduced himself as Torchwood, but left when they answered they didn't have any doctor called " THE Doctor".

Hours passed. At seven am, the two girls left their post as their shift ended. It was in their habit, once a week, to go back to the restaurant they met for the first time. There, Melany would always order the eggs breakfast and Emma the blueberry pancakes, drowning them in a flood of maple syrup. She was talking about her last boyfriend's mistake before he became her ex, still pouring more syrup to her plate, when a man reached to their table, stopping the flow by confiscating the bottle.

"Maple syrup is bad, very should pay attention to what you abuse of."

The man was handsome, that fact probably shut off Emma and her coming indignation since she was so sensitive to beautiful people. And any kind of charming things in fact. She hooked with a guy once just because he had a nice chin… even if the rest was quite below the average.

As for Melany, she bit her lips hard enough to kill the smirk that would certainly make her friend severely angry at her.

"Well! Now that it has been settled, you actually both work at the Princess Grace hospital do you?"

None answered, surprised by the weird entrance he had done. The man looked at them one after the other, waiting for an answer.

"Great! I've got two silent-type! Aren't you women supposed to be blabbering all the time?"

Melany finally got her senses back after swallowing the oncoming laughing.

"I'm sorry, we were surprised. How may we help you sir?"

"Charming accent, I can't exactly put my finger on where it's from. It's funny though, it sounds like Marie-Antoinette when she dared talk in English."

On that one, Melany gave him a look trapped between surprise and understanding. After another moment of silence, Emma still dazzled by the pretty boy, she finally told him that, yes, they were working at the hospital he named earlier.

"Oh I don't care much, as long as you work in a hospital, that's good with me!"

He put his hand on Melany's shoulder briefly to take a slice of bread in her plate, then turned around and left. The two women looked at each other, shocked. They were about to say something when the man came back.

"By the way I'm the Doctor. What's your name?"

"Melany, and this is Emma."

"Glad to meet you!"

And then he left for real, getting out of the restaurant, his trench coat clashing with style with his converses.


	2. Silence the Nightmares: Chapter 2

Days after, on her last shift of the week, and still at night, Melany was working with a part-time helper since Emma was home, sick. She apparently had the same symptoms as most of the patients in the hospital. The rash wasn't so painful, but it was quite horrible looking and came with a fever and blisters. More and more skin symptoms were appearing in the region of London and the contamination zone was filled with teenagers and young people with eyes and skin diseases. Melany's boss tried to make her wear a medical mask, which she actually hated.

Maybe she should have listened to him. She was feeling weird lately but, since she was used to this kind of bad day, she thought it was only a normal bad day, even if it had last for weeks. The lack of sleep was the cause, not the officially non-contagious infection afflicting the others.

Actually, in the last week, she had very little sleep. From the short naps to the rare moments of rest, the nightmares always woke her up after only a few hours. In order to stay awake at the job, she had to chew on ice cubes and drink amazing quantities of coffee.

On her break, she left the part-timer at the desk to go eat something. Even if her lunch looked very tasty, she couldn't even find the strength to open her mouth wide enough to take a bite. The young woman couldn't sit, because she would instantly fall asleep, so she stayed up, walking around while massaging her head and her tired eyes. Was it the floor that was approaching so fast, or herself getting smaller? She finally got her hand on something to grab and stopped falling, totally confused. She shook her head: luckily, there was no one to see that.

So she thought.

"How great it is to meet once again! Isn't it, Melany?"

She might have turned around too fast, since she almost met the floor once again. But there was this very reliable chair in her hand that helped a bunch. An all mighty chair that Melany actually appreciated a lot at that very moment. She nodded at the man in front of her. Who could have talked that way after seeing her fainting?

It was the men she and Emma had met at the restaurant, standing there, his dark blue suit fantastically opposing the white walls of the employees' room. She could find nothing to say to him.

"You surprised me. Again." She finally said.

"You look… I know I should say great but I'm not good with lies actually. You look terrible, and exhausted."

He flashed her with a small blue light, then looked briefly at something that looked like some weird pen, a tool she had never ever seen in a hospital before.

He didn't say anything. He just put the instrument away and grabbed her hand. She didn't feel it. The man leaded her to the small couch and sat next to her, keeping her wrist in his hand to take her pulse as he was still talking. What was happening?

"So, I heard you have a pandemic of rashes here in London. Would you care to tell me a few details? Good Lord, are you even human? Your heart beats at 230! You shouldn't even be conscious right now."

She skipped the little talk about herself and stepped directly to the questions the stranger had asked. She told him the most afflicted by the symptoms were the teenagers, mostly people between twelve and thirty, thirty-five years old. The young woman added that they had skin rashes, fever, eye diseases and inflammation, especially in the face, and headaches. Still, it did not seem to be contagious.

"Why do you ask? And why the bloody spirit am I telling you all this?!" She said, leaving the couch in an instant.

"Because your head is too sick to analyze a potential danger from a solution to this danger. (He put a hand in his pocket for a second) Take this, it might help you, I swear."

It was a yellow stripped candy, apparently. A yellow candy. The fact that everything in this situation was completely ridiculous just crossed Melany's mind for a second, then vanished. Her head was in a complete blur: she reached a hand toward his. He had to do the rest, putting himself the sweet between her lips, since she fainted right at that moment. She was back just a blink later, feeling much better. And felt that he was holding her: his hands were strong.

"What the… what are you doing?"

She got back on her feet and he let her go, not embarrassed at all, saying in an atone voice to himself:

"I never know what the yellow one can give as side effects. Last time, the guy I gave it started convulsing all of a sudden."

The woman started shouting that seemed to mean « it could have made me worse!» then tried a few steps around. After a very short stroll, she stopped next to her untouched lunch, grasped her sandwich and suddenly started to eat.

"And just what are YOU doing?" he asked.

"Eating? I couldn't taste anything in the past week, I am hungry and I actually really love sandwiches."

"Don't rush yourself then. It would be uneasy for me to get my answers if you choke to death."

He asked a few more questions, still about the pandemic. It didn't take long before he told her he had to leave. She was a bit uncertain about him going away. She chased this thought right away: she didn't need him to stay.

"But who are you? From which hospital are you if you are a doctor? I haven't seen you around before."

"I am the Doctor the same way you are Melany. But more important than my name, I can't recognize this charming accent of yours. Where are you from?"

"It's because English is not my native language.

"Eureka! That's why it sounded like Marie-Antoinette; you normally speak French! Where from? Is it from France? No, no, let me guess… French Canada?"

"Yeah, you're right" she confirmed in a laugh.

"You are far from home."

She didn't answer to the last one. She asked how he knew about Marie-Antoinette Poisson, but he didn't answer either. It was time to go back to work. Melany showed him the door, accompanying him to the entrance.

"Thank you for earlier. I would have passed out without you."

"Don't mention it. I hope the pandemic will resorb shortly! Have a good night."

And he left the Princess Grace hospital without hurry, his trench coat floating behind him. Melany took back her place at the front desk, finished her shift that night without any other problem, then got back home. When she left the hospital, there was a strange blue box in the parking lot.


	3. Silence the Nightmares: Chapter 3

**Hey everyone! I am uploading a second chapter today since the other ones were so short. I have a lot of them already prepared for you, so I might do this every once in a while. Dear Torchwood lovers, your favorite characters are coming in the next chapter, so hang on just a little more!**

Sunday, eight pm and she woke up. Holy nightmares, they always had her awake before the alarm clock! Finally her day off. She tough about sleeping all the way to her next shift, but she was hungry and wanted to clean up the place a bit. Yes, even if she only had the necessary in that one and a half apartment. Plus, she woke up with that funny feeling, you know, the one you have when you smell food in the place even if you're alone? Imagination is amazing when your stomach is empty.

She tried to get off the couch, alias her bed, failed and only succeeded on her second try. Oups, dizzy. Maybe the clean up would wait finally. She then reached the "kitchen", only a step away, and then almost got a heart attack.

"Morning! I owed you a breakfast from that time at the restaurant. I came here to repay the toast."

It was the Doctor, and it wasn't her imagination telling her there was something cooking in her kitchen. He was standing in front of the toaster, waiting for the slices of bread to pop out, giving her a happy look like it was normal to be in someone else's apartment preparing food and, maybe, she did not know at this point, looking the people that actually inhabited that house sleeping.

"Doctor! What the heck are you doing here? How did you get in?" she shouted while double checking if the door wasn't damaged (easy, the door was close enough to be touched without her even moving. That's saying how small the apartment was).

"Sonic screwdriver. It unlocks about anything! And I am preparing something to eat, as I told you earlier. You only have bread in here? I hope this isn't what you humans call a diet, what I call starvation by the way. You know you moan in your sleep? That's pretty sexy, but I wonder no more for the reason you are so exhausted when you have this kind of dreams."

"Get out. This is not your right to come here."

She felt her legs getting numb all of a sudden. Then, she didn't feel anything anymore. A shiver pierced her from the bottom of her spine to her head, leaving her cold. But she was used to it. She still stared and the men in her kitchen as he was keeping his warm smile, spreading marmalade on the toasts, then walking toward her (only a step once again), extending a hand to reach her.

"Do not touch me." she whispered.

"I'm here now."

At that very moment, her mind got blank. On the other way, her vision went black. She collapsed.

Maybe a few minutes later, or a few hours, or seconds, she opened her eyes to see he was still there. He was smiling. Damn! That was a very nice thing to see just after waking up.

He had brown eyes.

"Well, you are not a morning person as I can see", he said calmly.

His hand was holding hers, but she didn't felt it like anything really romantic of course: he was taking her pulse. Again. She went back to sleep before he told her it was beating too fast. Plus, she had her head on his lap. Why not take advantage a bit longer? She couldn't have had him get out anyway in her state… maybe she trusted him too much. He might be a crazy man, or a robber, or her angel, she didn't know.

But then she was sleeping, and the nightmares came back. This time there was soothing hands on her forehead to chase them away, and a gentle voice in her ears to calm her when she started moving too violently because of them. For the first time, she slept a dreamless sleep.

She finally opened an eye in what seemed to be early morning. She had been asleep for how long? The doctor's lap wasn't her pillow anymore. She lifted her head to see if he was still there… he was at the computer, the blue screen reflecting on his skin. She stayed on the couch to say:

"You really are a doctor."

He turned around, looking at her sleepy face.

"You still need to rest. I would have liked to put you in a bed for a couple of days but you don't even have one. No hidden meaning with the bed thing by the way…

She laughed. But then he stared at her with such a face that she regained her seriousness.

"You intend to stay here long, but the only possessions you have are a refrigerator, a couch, a toaster and this computer, along with this chair. How could you live like that for four months? You know only Emma, have no other friend, go to your job then come back here. Aren't people your age having a life full of activities and stupid experiences?"

Melany looked at him with a faint smile, not knowing if he actually asked for an answer. He looked annoyed by something, as if he was embarrassed, or suddenly shy about something. She looked under the sheets; no, she wasn't naked or anything. After a while she removed the sheets and attempted to stand, taking her two tries to actually get on her feet, then reached to the Doctor to see what he was doing with her computer.

"My computer couldn't do that before…"

"I've arranged it a bit. But don't look at it! It's a source code to a virus that's been causing a lot of problems around here for the last weeks. If you peek, you'll end up even worse than you already are."

Too late, she was already looking over his shoulder. She scrolled and pointed something in the screen.

"This is a game. Emma plays it. And how the heck could an image get me sick anyway?"

He gave him an interested look while asking what kind of game that could be.

"MMORPG. Or online role-playing games. A lot of people a totally addicted to those. They can play hours and never get bored."

The Doctor starred for a second, then got his senses back and smiled wildly, jumped from its chair to squeeze her, and even kissed her forehead in joy. After all this, he decided they would go somewhere, apparently, since he extended his arm to Melany while walking toward the door.

"May I dress first?" she said, showing her pajama.

**Don't forget to let me know what you think of this story so far! It means everything to an amateur writer to receive critics or words of appreciation. Thank you for reading. You are the best.**

**M.A.**


	4. Silence the Nightmares: Chapter 4

A few minutes later, he was dragging her in the backstreet of the neighbors.

"Where are we going?"

"Surprise! I've got the fastest way to go wherever I want to."

They were now in a small side-alley in the back of an old grocery store. She remembered that the owner of her apartment had advised her not to go in these dark corners since she was living in a poor quarter. Well, she was there. She started to look suspiciously everywhere, just in case. What was she doing in that place with a man she didn't know?

"Don't worry. It's not like we weren't used to this kind of place the Tardis and me. And so do you, I guess."

"Tardis? Who's that? Your driver?"

He laughed, answering that it was almost it.

A few more steps away, the Doctor seemed to find what he was looking for. The dead end ended on a pile of crates and garbage bins.

"If your driver was supposed to be waiting here, then I'll take the bus."

"The Tardis never leaves me. Well, she did once or twice. Well, she did come back at least. I wouldn't be me without her."

Melany was now thinking the Doctor was engaged. He went right toward what seemed to be a huge pile of crates covered by an old cloth. In a dramatic move, he removed it to uncover what was under. Actually, that was not a pile of junk. And it was blue as an evening sky. A big blue box taller than her.

The Doctor was searching for something in his jacket's pockets. He finally found it after looking in his pant's.

"Do you want to open it?" he said, stretching is opened fingers to her.

"A key? Weren't we supposed to get a transport?"

"This IS transport! Come on!"

She took the small golden key, looking at the thing in front of her with apprehension. There was a door. She could not get into something so small.

There was something written just over the door. «Police public call box», she knew that.

"It's from the sixties. It was used by the police officers to contact the local police station. Why not red, like in Glasgow? Does it still work?"

"I wondered if you remembered your college studies."

Melany slowly raised her eyes to look at him, suddenly guarded. She stepped back while he was grinning, taking the face of a man that has said something he shouldn't.

"How do you know about it?

They shared a long eye-to-eye conversation. Hers were saying distrust and confusion, his were sad and guilty.

"I… am psychic. To stop your nightmares, I had to get in your head and share many of your memories. I vaguely know about your latest years and your most important moments. If it worries you, I swear these memories are well guarded and I won't use them against you…"

"I don't even know you!" she yelled.

She took a few steps back again and threw him the key. He only nodded sadly and turned his eyes to the ground.

"It was an accident. But for the address, I must admit that I putted a tracker on you the other day at the restaurant. It could have been your friend Emma too, but you answered first and I wanted someone fast witted."

She starred at him with distrust before turning back. He looked at her walking down the alley while he was standing there.

She walked for a while; focused on the deception she had been the victim. She hated that word: victim. Never again, she said to herself. No more illusions. No more trust. She was too easy to lure. If she wasn't so sick! She could see more clearly, she thought.

There was someone shouting in the alley in her back. A man? She would not go back to him, even if he was running after her. But those were not the yells of someone who wants to attract another person's attention. It was cries for help.

She probably never ran this fast in her life. At approximately half way to the dead end she was earlier, she found a couple of guys attacking a young man and what she supposed to be his girlfriend. The two of them were pretty outnumbered. Who would go? She did.

"Hey guys, par ici!"

They were only distracted for a second, the time for her to jump in.

At the other end of the alley, the doctor was looking at his blue box, wondering, wondering what he had done again. Maybe he should take the Tardis and leave this planet for good. Maybe he should find a partner elsewhere.

He then heard a shout. A woman's voice. Melany? It could be. Honestly, why should he care?

…

Because he was the Doctor. What else?

He put back the key in his pocket to run toward the sounds he heard coming from the entrance of the path. He stopped just before he entered the range of the pack of people there was in there. Melany was there, along with Ianto and Tosh. They must had found him earlier with the signal he sent from the computer. It was quite a coincidence.

And Melany was trying her best siding with them against the punks attacking them. One was down, his nose cracked horribly. The others were receiving blind offensives, more improvised than really effective. Knees, elbows, fists. The three of them where not the fighter type, but they caused a lot of damages before he arrived, even if the enemies seemed to be still in control since none of them were backing off. Like some automat that didn't feel any pain at all.

Toshiko saw him first.

"Doctor, they're not humans!"

He got his screwdriver out at the speed of the sound to scan one of the punks.

"Malwares." he said in a gloomy whisper.

Maybe he shouldn't had been so distracted while standing so close to a battle involving a lot of people, because he never noticed the one that punched him soundly on the left cheek. He fell to the ground and couldn't stand up before the guy pointed him with what seemed to be a gun.

"I _hate_ guns."

Luckily, Melany had seen all of it and stepped to the threatening man to tackle him firmly enough to make him fall too. They all heard the loud bang of a bullet as the guy was hitting the ground, Melany down with him as he had got a grasp on her coat.

Everyone stopped as they were wondering if anyone had been shot. The man stood back on his feet, hanging on his assailant by one of her arm, painfully bent in her back. Hopefully, no one seemed to have taken the bullet.

"The cure! Give us the cure and we'll let you go free."

The man that was talking was bigger than the other punks. It was probably their…chief?... since he had the weapon. For now, that gun was pointing at Melany's neck, and it was hot after firing, and she felt the burn on her skin.

"Give Melany back then I'll tell you where it is." said the Doctor as an answer.

In his head, it was more going like «what cure?» but he thought it might be better not to say he couldn't tell them anything about it.

"The malwares swore they would never come to this planet. So what are you doing on earth?" he added, staying there, lying on the asphalt, crossing his legs in a fake calm.

"The Gallifrey's constitution doesn't apply anymore around here Timelord. Give back the cure and you'll all go free."

There is always a small thing at the very end of a gun called the front sight. It's made of metal. Well, instead of using a bullet and missing the chance to have a hostage, the guy used the cutting edge of that thing to scratch Melany's skin as a warning; he was losing patience already. The wounded apparently tried not to complain but she only succeeded to make it louder.

"It's hidden. Kill anyone and you'll never see it ever again."

The freaks approached Tosh and Ianto to square them. No way out. The situation was getting in quite a dead end, and lies wouldn't get them out. But it's always in this kind of awkward situations that another someone appears from nowhere with a solution.

"Hello! Special delivery for the Malwares."

Someone threw a box in the middle of the protagonists assembled there. Tosh and Ianto knew what to do and crouched to the ground while the doctor was hiding his hands in his back. The hostage, as under enemy control as she was, could do nothing but hope it wasn't anything more painful. And closed her eyes, super reflexes! The box opened from its sides to splash the scene in a stunning light that lasted for a few seconds.

"All done! You can open your eyes for now sweetie. Hello Doctor! Long time no see. You missed your hand! Tosh, Ianto, next time, you wait for me. Oh! And by the way, love, I am captain Jack Harkness. The pleasure's all mine."

His last phrase was intended for Melany. She was actually trying to get her arm back since it was still hold by a man with murderous intents, so she didn't really cared on the moment. The other punks seemed to have vanished thus. The Doctor set her free very easily since, as she noticed just after, the stranger was actually half vaporized.


	5. Silence the Nightmares: Chapter 5

"Did a cyborg tried to kill me?"

"No Melany. This is no cyborg." answered the Doctor summarily. "Torchwood! What are you doing here? I was going to meet you at Cardiff just now."

The three others were actually in a sudden meeting right at the entrance of the alley. Jack turned around.

"Sorry, we had to note the little fixes we'll have to do on our flash bomb. You were saying? Coming to Cardiff aren't you? How sweet: you don't pay us a visit very often."

"I think we've got half a problem here…"

"No Melany. It's dead." he said while scanning the remnants of the man with his sonic screwdriver.

"Is she your new companion? I liked the last one, but this one is quite nice too. Her pale skin is quite a change from Martha."

The Doctor rolled his eyes in consternation.

"Are you hurt dove? Use this for the cut."

Jack gave her his handkerchief before joining the Doctor near the "corpse".

"They are made of pixels. Our little gadget simply puts all the ones from their binary code to zeros and they vanish. This one is not totally off since your friend's body protected it from the light source; we need to find something more effective soon." he explained.

Melany took the tissue quite reluctantly since these guys were still total strangers to her. Well, she thought, at least they hadn't put any tracker on her. She glanced with doubt at the man that had involved her in this weird journey. She applied the cloth on her wound to stop the bleeding. Maybe she should just walk back the alley and let them discuss the matter of the bloody cadaver by themselves… but then she heard:

"What have you put on the hankie?" asked the doctor.

"Special drug. If she's not your companion, can I?"

"Yes Jack, you can."

If she had the time to think about anything, that would have been «stupid me». She watched that so called captain approach with his sexiness while she was starting to see everything in double, even him. When she analyzed that he was close enough, she tried to punch him. She missed horribly and he had to catch her before she hit the ground, but at least, she felt with the comforting belief that she had resisted a little.

The Doctor didn't seem surprised; he simply continued his observation of the dead body. Jack took Melany in his arm to transport her.

"You have the cure they were talking about, don't you Jack?"

"Yes, we have it. However, there are a lot of details to arrange on it. We should be done in a week or so. What do I do with her? Brainwash?"

The Timelord looked at her, asleep once again. She clearly deserved an achievement of some sort for collapsing so many times.

"No. She needs Owen's cares. Bring her with us, we'll take the Tardis and go right to your QG for now."

"Yes sir!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The blue box stopped in a last sound inside of a vast basement. Gwen, surprised by all the little paper that were flying around because of the Tardis, removed her earplugs, exchanging a look with Owen who was reading the newspaper. When he saw Jack coming out with his precious load, he took the young girl to the couch where he started immediately a basic routine. The Doctor got out of his transport wit Tosh and told her:

"She says it might be a game called mmorpg, but I don't know which one yet."

"I'm on it!" she said hastily as she was starting typing on the keyboard of her workstation.

He gave her the source code he had found earlier then got back to Melany's side.

"Owen, there is something definitely wrong with her heartbeat. It has to do with her nightmares I'm pretty sure. She unconscious for now, but you'll see when she starts dreaming and when she'll wake up."

"Aye aye captain. Just who is she for you to be so concerned? Your new companion?"

He sighted heavily and then asked Jack to go in a more private place in order to talk. Agreeing, they both went upstairs to his bureau.

"All of this stinks if you ask me, said Gwen while coming closer to the new guest. It would be different for once if it didn't."

She touched Melany's cheek in a surprisingly motherly way: she was cold. She went to the infirmary to get her a blanket for the night.

"I'll stay with her for the night." she decided.

"Nope. Mr. Husband is waiting for you back home. I'll stay here anyway so I'll look over her."

Owen took the blanket from his friend's hands and installed their guest more comfortably for the night.

"Don't you dare do anything while she's asleep!" she said, joking.

After a while, the two women took their coat and left the tower-basement to go back home. Jack and the Doctor were just coming out of the bureau when the door shut behind them. Owen had taken a chair and was staying by Melany's side without any signs of fatigue. It was 4 o'clock in the morning. Her eyes were going like crazy under her eyelids, showing an intense cerebral activity. The Doctor noticed it immediately.

"Look, she's having it again."

The Timelord went right to the young girl to calm her, his hand on both sides of her head. A Timelord always has his tricks, even to chase away the bad dreams. She calmed down and seemed to relax.

"Calm her with sedatives if she ever starts again. She must not get to the point were she starts moving and moaning, you hear me? If she does, you won't be able to calm her again until she awakens on her own."

"It seemed to be a pretty normal nightmare to me…" initiated Owen.

"It's not. Run the tests tomorrow, maybe you'll find out. I almost got drowned when I accidentally opened her mind to see what she was dreaming about last time. I leave her to your care for the next few days. I have an errand to do before I join you again."

He stood up and went right to the Tardis. He opened the door and shouted from afar as a last word:

"Jack! Don't try to charm her too much would you?"

And he left. The blue box started fading away and disappeared in a loud noise. Its last whisper resonated strongly on the tall walls of Torchwood, not to be heard for the next week.


	6. Silence the Nightmares: Chapter 6

p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"As she woke up the morning after, or more like at noon, she was in a kind of bedroom. A kind of, since there was no roof. Well, there was one, but very far above. She found it very funny. Two of the walls were made of stone and the others were made of cloths suspended on poles. She did not know where the heck she was and yet, she thought it wasn't that bad. The bed was an old couch, pretty comfy./span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"She lifted her head from the pillow to look around more closely and noticed there was a man sitting in a cozy lazy-boy just at her feet, drinking what seemed to be a cup of tea. He also noticed she was awake at the same time.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Good morning. Have you slept well?"span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""This smells really good. May I have some?" she asked genuinely. span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"The guy left his seat to bring her a cup, apparently destined to her from the beginning. She observed that he was wearing very fancy cloth, was speaking like a salesman, and he had a cute baby face. She had seen him before, in that alley where they had been attacked. Ianto was his name. If she remembered well, he also came to the hospital to ask about the Doctor earlier this week. She smiled at him.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Where's mister Doctor?"span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""He should be back in a couple of days. For now, he asked us to keep you safe here until then."span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Rent free?"span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Yes…" he looked passably surprised to see her react so well. "Are you feeling good?"span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"She nodded. She could never have imagined a better way to spend time at the moment. She trusted that Ianto guy for real and she was over excited to discover what was behind the curtains walls.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Jack?" the man shouted outside the "room".span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""She's awake?" the captain said while coming inside.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Melany smiled at him as he was looking at Ianto.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Oh man, the side effects are much worst than what I thought with this drug. Endorphins might be a bit too strong for someone her size…"span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""I was wondering why she responded so happily. She never even mentioned she had been abducted", realized Ianto.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" "What is behind this curtain?"p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"She left the room, still as happy as pie. The two men had to follow her for about an hour as she was exploring her new surrounding. The effects started to wore off when she reached the morgue. There, she climbed back the stairs and stood bluntly before Jack to finally ask:span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal""What am I doing here, who are you, where am I and what do you intend to do with me?"p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Your first intelligent questions are awfully late dear. This is Torchwood, you are our guest, I am captain Jack Harkness and we'll be your merry friends for the week. The looms are on your right, the emergency exits are in the roof and on both side of the room, there will be meals served and watch out for the pterodactyl. Thank you for using air Torchwood as your home for the next few days."span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"She punched him in the stomach and went right to the first exit she saw.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Jack had decided that he would let his guest calm down a bit before trying to talk with her again. Their last encounter had let him a sour taste: she had quite a strong punch. It was almost 6 pm when Gwen came back with the pizzas they ordered.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Where is she?" she asked while deposing the boxes on the meeting table. span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"As everyone was in the room, Tosh opened the surveillance camera network to find Melany. It took her a few seconds but she did get an image of her.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""She's… with the weevil." span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"They all stared at the screen for a moment.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Where did she find the markers?" questioned Owen.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"The young woman was face to face with the creature, on each side of the Plexiglas cell. With a white marker, she was actually drawing on the transparent wall. She had given another marker to the weevil along with a piece of cloth to erase, and she was trying to communicate trough drawings and mimics. The alien was apparently trying his best to use the tools she had genuinely given to him and a faint start of a conversation was ongoing.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Well, she as good with aliens as with her fists. I'll bring her meal over there." said Jack.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Gwen, however, took the part that belonged to Melany, giving as an excuse that the weevil really hated him and that it might ruin the girl's efforts. She took an extra part for herself and then went to the cells section. The long corridor was filled with the soft voice of the young woman and the noise of the sliding markers. When she noticed Gwen's presence, she simply went on with whatever she was trying to explain with the creature. On the glass, there were drawings of humans, weevils, stars, letters, unknown words from the weevil's dialect.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Hello." said Gwen softly. "It's amazing, what you are trying to do. We know they are gifted with intelligence, but they are still too dangerous for us to let them free, sadly."span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""I think it's because they are from a warrior civilization. Like the Huns, for example. And that's the reason why they attack."span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Gwen starred at her with surprise.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""How..? How did you manage to find that?"span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""His name is written there. I can't pronounce it right but still, he has one. It is really important you know, a name. Means he, and not it, is like us human, not an animal. Is that pizza my supper?"span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Gwen asked if she could come closer, Melany said yes. The weevil starred but did not back off at the far end of his cell like he would normally do, or hit the door to scare her. She asked if she could sit next to her, and the young woman smiled faintly.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal" p  
>p class="MsoNormal""Sure. We'll introduce you first."p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Melany was about to write her name on the wall when she realized she hadn't met that member of Torchwood yet.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Gwen. My name is Gwen."span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" Melany wrote the letters very distinctly, in reverse in order to be easy to read from the weevil's side. She pronounced clearly the woman's name while pointing her and the written version of it and surprisingly, the weevil pointed his finger at himself, then at one of the words on the glass, certainly his own name.span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" "Bloody hell. How did you manage to do that?"span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Gwen left Melany's supper next to her and left, her own appetite strangely gone from the shock. When she got back to the rest of the team, still looking at the screen where Melany had actually found the reserve where the weevil's food was and giving him some, she told them:span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" "A year. A complete year and we never tried to communicate. It took her a couple of hours to learn his NAME!"span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" span/p  
>p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Jack left the room and said something from the distance: span"I can't be good at everything!"/p 


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